~ Thinking outside the box about Cambodia

Monthly Archives: January 2019

How are you coping with the flood of bad news that constantly come to face the weak strongman in the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk since his bitter and ugly victory after the sham election of 28 July 2018?

Yeah, it’s more than ugly and borderline with dangerous with not only the slow and open absorption of Cambodia by China, but also the continuous here-and-there appropriation by Vietnam since 7 January 1979.

So, you and your students do feel that too, ah!

Yeah, every day when Khmer wakes up, new faces of Chinese appear everywhere, and Chinese characters floating on those green nets and among the cranes like if it was in Shanghai.

Chinafication of Cambodia, courtesy of the weak strongman, isn’t it?!

Yeah, wondering how did he come to selling out Cambodia to China worst than what Chéy Chétha II did for Vietnam. Also wondering how he’ll manage his future, having simultaneously two masters on his back?

But Kacvey, you haven’t mentioned anything about EBA and the rice trade with Italy and Portugal?

Well, the weak strongman seems to pay no attention to the conditions set by EU, but instead he went to China to beg his master for more money leaving his not-very-intelligent-or-clever sycophants dispensing nonsense at the negotiation table in Geneva or Brussels. Either he has no empathy or he has no clue about the fate of the garments workers, so long his power is sitting solidly and autocratically.

How bout, the brouhaha of the possible return to Srok Khmer of the exiled and the bodyguard-militaro-police committee the weak strongman is setting up to “welcome or un-welcome” him?

If from the balcony, you see a pig flying, then you truly are a believer of charlatanism.

Okay, got it! Kacvey, you were earlier wondering how the weak strongman would manage his future, 1st having simultaneously two masters on his back, and if it may be added, 2nd facing with EBA withdrawal, and 3rd preparing for the exiled’s return?

Is there a plausible scenario?

Well, instead of scenario, let just call it: a fictional theory that would define that the weak strongman as having enough of everything, or reaching the end of his rope by giving all up.

To think like that would be crazy and insane!

Thinking crazily and insanely would be better than not thinking at all. Kacvey, how about you strongly keep this concept of “What if…” in mind that the fictional theory could happen like winning, against all odds, the lotto jackpot?

Okay, go ahead.

Just imagine the weak strongman, one morning, realizes that:

he has had enough of everything he has on earth: wealth, power, $3 million-dollar watch … except the “mokod” on his head; has any monk told him that he won’t take anything of that with hi when he “goes”, neither one green buck nor that hellishly expensive watch; any christian would tell him he can’t bring the power he has on earth to match with St Peter’s; his heirs would never burn a real dollar to soothe his soul, instead fake gold paper money will be offered in smoke;

he is physically tired and the pleasure and joy of being extremely wealthy and powerful is no longer shown on his face; instead, it shows permanent anxiety, fear and concern; he can’t spend his wealth or enjoy his power, instead he spends every Joule of his energy to protect the un-spendable wealth and non-enjoyable power; he makes money his servant to corrupt instead of to serve a good cause;

it’s no longer possible to serve two masters at the same time by continuing (1) to pay the eternal debt to Vietnam for the 7 January 1979 deal, (2) to beg for alms from China against relinquishing Khmer lands and bodies of water for Chinese casinos, buildings and “other considerations” in, for example,Koh Kong, and (3) the two masters start to be uneasy between each other, in other words, 3 in a bed have become cumbersome;

the number of immigrants and settlers from both Vietnam and China is getting bigger and bigger on a daily basis that the entire “corrupt” administration has neither authority nor capacity to control anymore;

his popularity is at rock bottom and he is isolating himself more and more inside his Takhmao “lion lair” and in front of his Facebook screen;

he runs out of arguments to convince the Western world to accept his corrupt regime without sanctions against him and his sycophants;

“Made in Cambodia” garments, and “Cambodian rice” are out of the Western world markets and cannot penetrate the Chinese markets, except may be for “rice”, Chinese being a rice eater;

he completely runs out of options on how to resolve the issue of the opposition leader who is under house arrest, as he was, at the first place, the one that created that problem through fictitious and unfounded charges;

his loneliness in making national and international decision and his love of always being the one and only at the top of combined legislative-executive-judiciary authority, as well as the one and only on the top of bodyguard-militaro-police forces have become the feeling of being unwanted and there is no more glory in being alone and at the top;

his sphere of spontaneous and convinced admirers and supporters are nowhere to be found except the artificial ones, gathered by his cronies, who sit like inert puppets listening to his monologue in Koh Pich, and

lastly, his secret scheme of transferring his power to his dauphin seems to hit a wall of internal or intestinal reluctance and criticism of his party members, old or young.

Then, what would happen?

Kacvey, this is where the fictional theory comes in to play. Because he cannot presently solve the two short-term major problems:

– the withdrawal of EBA privileges,
– the constitutional and legal issue regarding the opposition leader under house arrest,

and the two long-term others during his life time:

– the Vietnamese involvement and eternal debt,
– the Chinafication of Cambodia,

he would create a political atmosphere where the burden to solve all above problems would then fall on “somebody else”, and not even his dauphin. As a result, he would escape the blame, his blood pressure would drop, and Cambodia history might be written otherwise.

Who might be that “somebody else”?

Kacvey, it would not be a single person like in his case, but it could well be a mixed bag of elements from the ruling party (excluding the Dirty Dozen, plus) and from the opposition after the results of a “free-and-fair” anticipated legislative election. The earlier, the better, if he doesn’t want to be flown MEDEVAC to Singapore.

That’s absolutely preposterous! The weak strongman giving up all of that? Never. It’s his dream since his childhood. Never. Never ever.

Kacvey, he has realized all his dreams, including fecking Pol Pot in 1977, and his own Khmer Rouge 1979 and 1992. What more would he want? Remember Aesop’s “The Frog and The Ox”? Boom, and its belly bursts and it’s gone, you can’t even use it to make an “angkèp baurk” or its legs as “cuisses de groenouilles à la provençale”; but the ox remains alive. Please take your time to ponder over, alone or with your students, or to refine it, and it’s free! By the way, Gioconda Belli, once, said: “The world has always gone forward when people have dared to have crazy ideas.”

Please tell us how glorious were the fireworks at the VI..N..-VI..N.. Monument on the eve of the New Year, if there were any? A usual monologue speech filled with indignant and incongruous verbiage was however delivered by the weak strongman to a scattered applause from his sycophants.

Do you have a chance to pass by that useless and grotesque piece of white cement days after its inauguration to see how it stands in shame and distaste in the middle of a dictatorial socio-political landscape designed for the weak strongman’s vanity and arrogance?

Please update when you have a chance. Thanks.

The subject of today’s letter for you and your students to discuss and analyze is about what the weak strongman had lately and publicly expressed with slight, disdain and disrespect against of royal family and that could be characterized as a possible crime of lèse majesté.

As far as Khmer history is concerned, and for whatever reason one wished to formulate, the kingdom of the Khmer never had any law against lèse majesté. The worst that happened was the abolition of the monarchy by the Lon Nol regime and that abolition was maintained not only under the genocidal Khmer Rouge Pol Pot regime but also under the Vietnamese-supported regime of the current weak strongman when he returned to Cambodia from Vietnam on 7 January 19179 until the UNTAC election in May 1993. The monarchy was restored after the completion of the election with the coronation of Sihanouk.

In its Khmer language article dated 21 December 2018, Radio Free Asia reported about staff management issue in the CNC television and the pressure that the weak strongman exercised upon the CNC leadership to revert a decision involving the firing of a staff member believed to be one of his relatives; the weak strongman made it clear that “ជាមួយ​ខ្ញុំ​កុំ​និយាយ​ឲ្យ​សោះ​ឪ​ស្តេច​ម៉ែ​ស្តេច ក៏​ខ្ញុំ​ដាក់​ដែរ”. In its English version, Radio Free Asia reported that: “well I’m not even afraid of the queen and the king’s father!”

Kacvey, you and your students would certainly be of the opinion that the English translated of the weak strongman’s words from Khmer are much more mild, polite and uncompromising, but the Khmer words are plain insolence, disrespect and contempt towards the king’s father and mother. On 30 December 2018, Radio Free Asia followed it up with a Khmer language article with opinions from different commentators that you and your students can fully appraise and appreciate.

For our part, let just ask the questions:

Why the weak strongman needed to refer to “the queen and the king’s father” in his argument in such a withering and disparaging manner?

What’s behind his motive?

Is there a dark scheme brewing or germinating inside his mind and future plan? Fujian versus or to replace Corsica?

Has he forgotten that there is a law of “his” on lèse majesté?

As the whole world knows that he rules Srok Khmer and all Khmer laws are nothing else but his toilet papers, would he infer that the law on lèse majesté is not different from other laws as far as he is concerned?

Is he testing the strength of the monarchic institution?

Is he measuring the tape between “sdach” and “samdach”?

What would the king himself think about the whole enchilada?

Does he truly feel offended or insulted by his subjects in question?

Has he ever been invited to testify at the court proceedings?

Qui tacet consentire videtur?

The weak strongman must surely have read and learned a lot about Chinese history, especially during the period of The Warring States, how Chinese dynasties were created, and how Chinese and foreigners became emperors.

Well, all first emperors of all Chinese dynasties were all common people, and warriors.